A Lost Soul
by Braingame
Summary: Jessica Craig is different to others, an aspiring physicist at the age of 15 she inadvertently causes a disaster which forces her to leave her home involuntarily and make a life in the Mass Effect Universe. Can a scientist more at home to reading books by fluorescent light really become a necessary weapon against the reapers? LiaraX(fem)OC, Shepard is Female.


Hello reader!

This story will be a crossover of Mass Effect and Crysis. I would have it listed as such but it seems Crysis does not have a section or I have overlooked it. Considering it is Mass Effect centric I will keep it as a Mass Effect fanfiction even if I have overlooked this.

I give full credit to DemonfireX for the idea of the nanosuit in Mass Effect. I'm not sure if it was originally his idea or not but his "Crysis Effect" is truly a pleasure to read and I sincerely hope he doesn't hold my use of the idea against me.

Secondly, I am taking a hiatus from "Live or Survive" which is already obvious but I might as well make it official. Thank you for all the support and I will be continuing it when I have more inspiration.

Thirdly, this story will not be consistently. I noticed when I was updating a chapter a day the quality suffered severely and I updated was always overtired. I now realise that such an ambition was a foolish endeavour and will not be repeated. I apologise to all those subjected to my lapse in judgement.

I hope you all like this story please leave comments and tell me what you think. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own either Crysis or Mass Effect.

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Main Character POV

Gunfire and explosions are the classic sounds coming from the average introverted 15-year old these days, curious that they only briefly came from mine. The majority of the sounds heard from my room were the sounds of a pencil scratching repetitively on paper, the turn of a page and the purring of my cat "Angela" who likes to monopolise my time. I go through pencils faster than days, and the paper used is phenomenal! It's only getting worse as I grow up.

What one would notice most in my room though is that they weren't drawings that you'd see in the average schoolgirl's room, no heroes or celebrities and certainly no unicorns or ponies. I fancy myself a scientist, and I have spent six years designing a machine that **will** break the fabric of time and space utilizing a black hole in a controlled environment for study. I won't bore you with the design because everyone I try to explain it to verbally understand little and find some excuse to leave. Suffice to say it is ingenious and it may well work. I have a prototype built but as it may go wrong, however unlikely, I have decided to create a quantum link between myself and… well, not to put too fine a point to it, the internet. My logs will record everything, my thoughts, what I see, what I do; everything. I have designed the program connected to it to filter the "RAW_DATA" so that you will get a more comprehensive and crisp grasp on what is happening.

First however, introductions: I am Jessica Craig, I am fifteen years old and this may be the last time I am ever heard of… Well, read of anyway. The mind link has been initialised and the previous passage was constructed, I hope it was interesting but that is beside the point. The point is that if it was as I predicted, easy to read and structured enough to read clearly, unlike my thoughts. Regardless I am about to activate the laser compression matrix linked to the matter supply.

This should be interesting…

Activated!

Rather anticlimactic really, it's buzzing to alert those nearby that it is activated but no "end of the world" scenarios. I was half hoping for them but oh well. Enough fantasising, readings are coming in.

Ok, analysis of readings: The control lasers are still perfectly straight, the ones on the inside are slowly shifting target towards the centre! Gravity increase has been achieved at no cost in space! Magnetic waves are fluctuating, unexpected. I was hoping for some radiation which has been achieved but not electric fields.

Mass, and hence gravity, is increasing at a steady rate. All systems green and we are set for internal atomic breakdown in…00:02:43.

Well we have time, might as well go through the basics. You know my name and age. I am, as you may have guessed, rather intelligent. I have been called: "Cold", "Freak", "Know-it-all", "Weirdo", "Loner", you get the general concept. I have Asperger's Syndrome, I do not lack in empathy but I don't express myself like everyone else. My face falls in a "depressed" look and many find it difficult to hold conversation with me while others are present. I assume that they are embarrassed to be seen speaking with me based on body language and tone, mildly hurtful but I can't change people. Notably though, I find that they come to me frequently when they have a problem with relationships. They say I'm really good at "that stuff". Why they are so oblivious to their colleague's almost overt staring and blatant poor attempts at courtship is beyond me but I help them nonetheless. I am actually over-empathetic to my peers; if I so much as brushed someone off I would feel the guilt for days. I know from experience.

I identify with people easily, it is not reciprocated and I have never been in a relationship, partially my fault and partially that the guys here either do not possess a sense of morality or are utter imbeciles. I say this because they are either the epitome of hubris, believing I should fall at their feet, or they are just trying to impress their friends, I am attractive but it becomes a burden when people have the gall to be so brusque and apathetic to another's feelings.

Sorry, I am painting them in a bad light. There was one who was sincere though, the first time he spoke to me he was so timid I though he was going to either cry or run. He admired me, but it was only infatuation, I knew we wouldn't work out but decided to anyway. He liked my intelligence and my looks but seemed to view me too highly, as though I was not an equal but higher. When I decided to take him up on his offer my hopes were not high. He looked so happy it was infectious and we both had some great times. When it ended, as it inevitably was going to, his face was heartbreaking. He had seen it coming, no doubt about that, but he just seemed so resigned to it that his eyes momentarily lost that spark they had clung to. His exact words were, "I knew it was going to end, I knew from after our first date. You are a wonderful person Jessica, and I thank-you for the time we have had".

It was beautiful; I haven't heard such a heartfelt statement from anyone. He put so much effort into it, deliberately speaking formally and letting it be a clean break. I in turn thanked him and we both went home reasonably unhappy but lighter. He was a nice person but I need someone who I can work with. I need someone who can be at my side and work with me on things rather than just tagging along as he seemed to. I led every conversation and though he was more mature than most his age he was not what I was looking for.

In short there are very few people who I could spend my life with, whom I'll probably never meet… and that thought hurts… it's quite debilitating at times. Oh, listen to me; I'm sickening. I am almost the direct likeness to the drivelling schoolgirls I am surrounded by. That brings another item into play if you'll pardon the pun. The girls, well they are a similar story; I am bisexual. I haven't revealed the fact to the public and nor do I intend to as no-one has caught my eye as "someone I could spend my life with" and I don't think that's going to change soon, if ever.

See it's not only that I've Asperger's and I'm extremely picky but I also have a rare… abnormality. I am a hermaphrodite. It's not going to be an issue really when considering my already rather limited "options" but it would drive off those aforementioned few as well. To be more specific I have a female body type and I'm slightly stronger than average. If you want more explicit information keep reading if not, resume reading after I say so.

**Start.**

My genitals are fully functional for both purposes and the most basic description would be that I have an elongated clitoris so to be a penile appendage. Otherwise I am completely feminine, I would rate myself a 3.5 on the Kinsey scale. My mind is predominantly that of a female and while I am still attracted to men I admit I prefer the fairer sex.

**Finished.**

I'm glad that's over and our time is up. We have but three seconds…. And atomic breakdown has occurred, in other words: "fusion" but we still have a long way to go. The fusion energy will be siphoned off so I can use it to enhance the compression lasers' power. Thus far I have been running off a generator, a powerful one but it can only do so much. The amount of energy being poured into this thing is enough to power countries; I really hope the insulation is sufficient. I know it is but we are in technically unknown territory now.

Energy levels at a steady rise and gravity is at a constant increase. My Newton's Cradle is still straight so the insulation must be working. We should have a Schwarzschild radius greater than its size in about twenty minutes and then it's only a matter of hours until its large enough for fabric breakdown. I should warn you, at this point the known laws of physics break down completely. As nothing can have infinite mass black holes should not exist but… well they do. If I can find the answer as to how and why I will be honoured as the greatest physicist of all time for the rest of the foreseeable future.

To say I am excited would be a horrendous mistake; I am shaking with anxiety even taking two sedatives. So much is riding on this, six years of research and many painstaking hours stealing specialised equipment. I know, stealing is wrong, but the benefits if this work are just too enticing to pass up for avoiding a migraine from minor murkiness of morality. I mean it was only about $3,029,423 worth, ok that's still a lot even while leaving off the 63 cents but the point still stands!

I am a scientist and I will pursue my research past legal hurdles if I must.

The self-justifying ranting really isn't any consolation, I'll stop now.

3rd person perspective

Jessica prepares to sit at her cushioned office style chair in front of her top of the line computer for the hours it will take for her work to complete. Her preparations comprise of stretches, a yoga session and a tall glass of water. Her thoughts wonder aimlessly in the technology abundant room as she manipulates her body into positions that are painful to so much as look at.

The room itself was neat and well kept, but the large device in the centre, dominating the room, was not. Improvised or otherwise it was still aesthetically displeasing, it looked like some maniac had grabbed some spare bits and bobs and wired the whole thing together in some ill-conceived idea that it will do something. In a most basic sense it looks similar to a white plastic soccer ball atop a metal box. With a larger metal box beside it connected by three thick cables. There were wires running from the smaller box around to all the pentagons on the sphere and the whole thing was lit up brighter than a Christmas tree. The contraption was connected to her computer and the three monitors were alive with graphs and models pulsing and twisting much to the girl's delight.

She herself was animated as she eagerly lapped up the results. Her short blonde hair was in a high ponytail and emerald green eyes in constant motion. Her bottom lip has disappeared between her teeth and no doubt was accumulating a collection of bite marks as the readings stream in.

Soon however, the novelty wore off and with it the adrenalin. The kick of endorphins dissipated and tears of tiredness clouded her vision. She fought valiantly to stay awake but succumbed to sleep mere hours before the project was due complete.

2 hours later (15 min after fabric breakdown achieved) Jessica's POV

"Alert: matter readings exceeding safety parameters." What? Wait, did I fall asleep? I COULD DESTABALISE THE INSULATION ALGORITHMS WITH SUCH NEGLIGENCE! Ok, don't panic… Damage: ok, well on the positive side I was successful and my results have been synced with my brain chip, on the negative my machine is broken and the black hole is still growing, it's now independent of the energy feed and is leeching off the atmosphere! I have to re-insulate it, fast! Ok, easiest way to insulate is…

I reached for the mouse bit it moved of its own accord, off the desk and looks freezes on the event horizon of the small black ball in the middle of the room, it then red-shifts and disappears. Just as some scientist predicted, well, kudos to him or her.

Ok, I have to destroy or neutralise it. Maybe I could use a white hole? The theory is sketchy but it's my only option and will have to do. Ok, if I'm right I just need to make and area empty of everything, including Dark matter hopefully coaxing another universe to donate matter… No small task. How am I supposed to do this in minutes?

I fell a pull… oh god, it's pulling me towards it! I race over to the window and just manage to grab onto the windowsill before gravity becomes too warped in its direction. The house is collapsing around me; my computer is history having flown into a black hole along with all the items in my room. The floor has just at the equilibrium between earth's gravity and the black hole's and the ceiling is bending down at a precarious angle.

The black hole is about the size of one of those "super-balls" the toy stores sell. Why has it not gravitated directly to the centre of earth? It should have ages ago, the core would take significantly longer to completely collapse, giving me time enough to do something! Yet there it stays, hovering in mid-air.

Oh god, the walls are closing in on me! Sorry, I couldn't resist. I might never have the chance to say that again and it has never been said quite so accurately either. The pull is getting stronger; my arms are aching while I quite literally hang sideways.

The ceiling cracks under the pull and a section of the roof follows as most of this section of the house collapses into the black ball, I guess it was only built to withstand 1g not two. Ok, analyse. Its gravity is too powerful for me to pull myself out of the window and there is little chance I can do anything even if I did, I guess wormhole theory is my last hope and last for this planet!

Then it hits me, Oh my god…I've killed everyone! I throw my stomach contents sideways as the blood of seven billion deaths settles in my consciousness staining my soul. A shudder rips through me and I involuntarily release the window.

I scream as I am devoured by the insane gravitational forces, thought they would not be heard. Everything was quiet now, the black hole has long transcended the point of inhibiting sound from release and I am riding the express to the dreaded event horizon.

My vision rapidly changes and the world disappears behind me as a circle much like the black hole I saw previously. I shut my eyes tightly as I imagine the surface rushing up to meet me, the pain is excruciating. My body is being crushed under the sheer power of the thing. I can't even hear my own screams; my ears are in no way functional even if it wasn't sucking sound too. My eyes black-out as the blood vessels are squeezed and I feel begin light-headed.

The last thought that run through my head is the two people out of billions who I love the most.

Bye Mom, bye Dad. I'm so sorry.

My world fades.

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Well, I hope you liked this prologue I will update but I will not make any commitment as to when because it make my work lesser. As I said in the foreword, please comment. It really helps to have opinions and suggestions directly from the target audience.

Until next chapter,

Braingame


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